• Born: 17 Oct 1778, Sherborne, Dorset, England ^{1 4}
• Christened: 17 May 1781, Sherborne, Dorset, England ¹
• Married: 7 Mar 1820, Trinity Church Parish, New York City, NY, USA ²
• Died: 23 Feb 1855, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA ^{3 4}
• Buried: St. Michael's Churchyard, Bristol, R.I., USA ³

  Research Notes:

John the son of the Rev^nd Nath^l Bristed and Hester his wife, aged two years in October last (baptismal record)

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Writing his Will in July 1808 the Rev. Nathaniel Bristed of Bishop's Caundle in Dorset bequeathed £500 to his son John Bristed, a student of law now residing in New York America.

In 1819 John Bristed received £300 of Old South Sea annuities from his late mother's Will.

Writing his Will in December 1819, James Redit of St. Andrew Holborn, gent., bequeathed to his brother-in-law, John Bristed, now residing in America, his gold watch, which belonged to his wife's grandfather.

In 1832 John Bristed was bequeathed £1,000 in the Will of his sister Jane Bristed of Dorchester, spinster.

Writing his Will in October 1835, Benjamin Bowring of Dorchester, gent., bequeathed £200 to his brother-in-law John Bristed.

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BRISTED, John, clergyman, born in Dorsetshire, England, in 1778; died in Bristol, Rhode Island, 23 February, 1855. He was the son of a clergyman of the established church. After being graduated at Winchester College, he studied medicine in Edinburgh, and took a two years' course of law in the office of the celebrated Chitty. He removed to the United States in 1806, practiced law in New York City for several years with success, and married, in 1820, a daughter of John Jacob Astor. He studied Divinity under Dr. (afterward Bishop) Griswold, then rector of St. Michael's, Bristol, Rhode Island, and in 1828 was ordained and made the rector's assistant. In 1829 Dr. Griswold removed to Massachusetts, and Mr. Bristed became his successor as rector of the parish, where he remained until 1843. In 1807 he conducted the "Monthly Magazine," and in 1814 delivered an oration on "The Utility of Literary Establishments." His publications include "A Pedestrian Tour through Part of the Highlands in Scotland in 1801" (2 vols., 1804); "The Adviser, or the Moral and Literary Tribunal" (4 vols., London, 1802); "Critical and Philosophical Essays" (1804); "The System of the Society of Friends Examined" (1805); "Edward and Anna," a novel (1805); "Hints on the National Bankruptcy of Great Britain" (New York, 1809); "Resources of the British Empire" (1811); "Resources of the United States" (New York, 1818; reprinted in London, under the title of "America and her Resources," 1818); and "Thoughts on the Anglican and Anglo-American Churches," a reply to Mr. Wilkes's work on "Correlative Claims and Duties" (New York and London, 1823). An English reviewer of his "Resources of the United States," which was published about the same time that Sydney Smith asked his famous question, "Who reads an American book?" referred to the "unsubstantial prospect with which the prophetic folly that ever accompanies democracy had impressed his mind to a degree almost equaling that of the vain people with whom he had domiciled."... ⁴